Latitude Festival

So we went with the box and returned before th power supply had a chance to cool down. All in all it was a good look with a jam packed poetry tent listening to the vibes. Not sure if the audience really got what i was on about but as always it was a good learning experience with some lessons learned to take back to the studio.

Lesson 1.
The spoken word game can at times be just like the rap game full of people swimming in shark invested waters. Despite the feeling that I no longer have a place within the confines of the scene I shall remain positive and keep on the path I've embarked on.

Lesson 2.
Hung out with Kate Tempest and her band Sound of Rum as they took their busking rig around Latitude. Was real inspiring being around their energy and watching them set up shop, perform, shot cd's and bounce when moved on. Check them out here

www.myspace.com/soundofrumband

I toyed around with the idea of a mobile poetry rig earlier in the year and now feel moved enough to get it together and hit the streets and read some poems with the drum box. The worst thing that could happen is that no one listens and the best thing would be that I catch someones ears but I'm not going to find out by staying locked down in the studio endlessly tweaking.

Lesson 3

My inability to learn poems is now a bit of a boulder when trying to operate technology with a rhyme book in one hand. Not happening and you never saw Rakim walk on stage with his rhyme book. So the task ahead is to cement these poems into my brain and free myself from the shackles of pages.

Lesson 4

It would be easy to follow in the footsteps of those who have been deemed the bastions of Literature in it's spoken word form. Seems that their are lots of failed rappers and comedian people masquerading as poets these days. Entertaining and funny but devoid of any content. What happened to quotable lines and poems that moved you and made you laugh in the same breath? I made the almost fatal mistake of falling into the trap of playing for laughs when the serious words didn't seem to work. Must remember what Linton Kwesi Johnson said to me' Don't write for applause'.

Anyway that's enough from me for one night. Check www.myspace.com/charliedark for a new poems and beats experiment currently online